Why is search engine optimization (SEO) so expensive?
by Chris Genge
One of the questions our firm often gets asked
is, "Why is search engine optimization (SEO)
so expensive?" Simple answer -it isn't.
SEO is the most cost effective form of advertising
with a low cost-per-acquisition (CPA) and high
return on investment (ROI). Studies have proven
that dollar for dollar, SEO is the best form of
advertising… online and offline!
SEO is proactive… the customer is actively
looking for the products and services you provide.
Traditional advertising is passive… you are
hoping to spark someone's interest and get them
thinking about buying your products and services.
Compared with other forms of advertising, Internet
marketing via SEO is very inexpensive. Think about
how much your business spends on television, radio,
newspaper, magazine, and even yellow pages ads.
If you were to break these costs down on a monthly
basis, SEO would probably cost the least and still
deliver better results.
To test this, we looked into advertising in a
couple of national US magazines as well as newspapers,
yellow pages, and radio spots in some major Canadian
cities. The following table represents the average
cost per month for each.
| Advertising
Medium |
Reach
Size |
Type |
Frequency
Cost Per Month * |
| Bus.
Magazines (US) |
US
1/3 column |
B/W |
1/mth
$12000 |
| Radio
(CAN) |
local
30-second |
60-spots/mth |
$6000 |
| Newspapers
(CAN) |
local
bus-card size |
B/W |
4/mth
$2000-$2500 |
| Yellow
Pages(CAN) |
local
bus-card size |
B/W |
$180-$365 |
| SEO
global |
10-20
Keywords |
Full Color |
$249-$499 |
*Guidelines only as actual costs will vary depending
on market
conditions, geographical location, and your own
preferences.
It is difficult to provide precise numbers because
there are so many different variables that can
come into play. What we tried to do was keep the
variables as consistent as possible from one medium
to the next. The ads in the business magazines
were the most expensive but they provided the
greatest audience reach (next to SEO) and because
the size of the ad was larger than the newspaper
and yellow pages ad.
Radio came in as the next most expensive. We asked
to run a 30-second commercial that would be aired
60-times in a month (the recommended number of
airings was 100). Newspapers came in third only
because the frequency option we selected was one
ad appearing once per-week (Saturday issue) and
because the size of the ad was fairly small. The
yellow pages came in around the same cost as SEO,
but what good is a yellow pages ad to an online
business? SEO on the other hand, had one of the
lowest costs, provided the greatest audience coverage,
and with a 24x7 frequency.
Which of these forms are you currently using?
How effective have they been? Do your own research
and see what you come up with. Because of the
variables, your numbers will be different than
ours, but when you break them down to measure
the overall costs (CPA, ROI)… the majority
of you will see that hands down, SEO is the best
option.
It doesn't matter what form of advertising you
are using… for online success, SEO really
is the most cost effective and efficient way to
promote your business. That's why SEO is gaining
in popularity with everyone from small one-person
operations to large, multi-national Fortune 500
companies.
SEO lets you target your message to the right
people at exactly the right time... when they
are looking to buy… at a fraction of the
cost than other advertising media.
About the author:
Chris Genge is the President of 1st on the List
Promotion Inc, a website promotion firm that specializes
in pay per click management and search engine
optimization. Chris writes on current and emerging
search engine marketing theories, and has been
involved in the SEO industry since its very early
days. Since 1997, he has focused on researching
and implementing the most effective search engine
optimization techniques. Learn more at http://www.1stonthelist.ca/
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